Silent City

20. The Abyss

 The Royal Waterways was the dingiest, dirtiest place in Hallownest, and also Hornet's least favorite place in the kingdom. Some of the animals in that place weren't her favorite, specifically the flukemons. They were large, demonic, worm-like creatures that dwelled in the waterways, that attacked blindly and without thought. Hornet didn't mind the darkness of the waterways, after all, she was born in Deepnest-- no, her distaste lied with the dampness and the dirtiness.

But they would only spend a small stint of their time in this damp, putrid place. They went to their left and down past the crooked bench in the waterways, and then right through where the White Defender had created his own hideout after his exile. He gained the nickname "The Dung Defender" during his exile, after the place he decided to hide out in. Hornet would never understand what urged him to take up residence in such a place, but it wasn't her business.

Ghost and Hornet arrived in a shaft that went from the second half of the city of tears down to the lower tram. Two winged sentries sat there, perched on the wall waiting for them, their eyes bright but very dead. They sprung off the walls as they spotted them, and they fended them off rather effortlessly. Using the walls on all sides of them, Hornet and Ghost jumped to the walls and leaped towards them, taking two sharp, lethal swipes at the sentries. They fell to the floor, one impaled by a spike sticking up dangerously on the way down the shaft, the other falling and flopping down helplessly onto the scaffolding.

They'd be up again. Infected people, like the two winged sentries, couldn't really be killed. After a time, they would slowly sit up and return to their places perched on the walls as their injuries healed. It was really a miserable existence, if you could even call it that. Hornet doubted it even counted as an existence, considering none of the Radiance's victims could think. They simply existed without a purpose and without a will. In some ways, Hornet wanted to have that— to have the burden of the kingdom lifted off her shoulders, the burden of a mind lifted off her shoulders. To simply wait endlessly for nothing. But no. The only reason to live was for free will, and that was what the Radiance took from people.

She and Ghost navigated down through the scaffolding in the tall stone shaft. Once they reached the bottom, they turned left to a long, wide tunnel lined with creatures on the floor that writhed and hissed maliciously at them. Their long spines wouldn't be a pleasure to fall upon.

They slowly hopped from pillar to pillar over the pit of spiny creatures, fighting off sentries that hovered above them. When the two of them reached the other side, they went down to find an abandoned tram stop. Ghost had the tram pass they had used when they returned to Hallownest long ago, but today they had no need for the tram.

Hornet dropped below the platform into what was now fully the Ancient Basin. This was a barren place, and the only creatures that roamed it were large, spiny bugs called shadow creepers. They were docile and only crawled uninterrupted up and down the walls and floors. The western part of the Ancient Basin had more life forms in it, but they were all heavily infected, and at this point, way beyond saving.

Hornet pressed on, continuing downward until she reached the large archway where the door to the Abyss once stood. Centuries ago, Ghost had removed the doorway with the King's Brand, and not much had changed since then. Hornet led them into the Abyss and to the edge of the overhang created above the incredible drop.

This was the most infamous place in Hallownest. There had been a reason the Pale King sealed it off from the rest of the Kingdom. It was likely both his biggest regret and his proudest achievement. The Abyss was huge, and mostly barren. The only living creatures were a few shadow creepers, which took up residence after the Pale King sealed it off. The walls were covered in spikes, and floating platforms littered the inside. They were somewhat of a characteristic of hallownest— certain natural structures would float in the air, completely stable and still. They weren't really noticeable in any other place other than the Abyss, but it made the space that much more impressive.